An unannounced follow-up inspection to these three areas took place on Monday 16 and Tuesday 17 January 2017. During the follow-up inspection, a number of improvements had been made to address the concerns about the standard of environmental cleanliness and the systems to support this.

NHSGGC Statement: Staff working hard to address report requirements

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde’s nurse director, Margaret McGuire, wants to reassure patients and visitors that inspection reports by Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS) are taken extremely seriously and are key to identifying issues that need to be improved.

As the lead for person centred care, our nurse director is determined to ensure patients are confident about our services and our commitment to quality at every level of patient care when they come in contact with our services.

She said: “Whilst there have been some very positive reports on environmental cleanliness in our hospitals in recent years there have also been some that have given me – and my colleagues in Greater Glasgow and Clyde health board – some concerns.

“Negative feedback from the inspectors should be accepted positively and acted upon to make sustained improvements and that is why I value these inspections so highly.

“Recently an HEI inspection at the QEUH identified shortcomings in the cleanliness of equipment, general cleanliness in the emergency department and domestic record keeping. A more recent follow-up inspection identified that not all of the issues picked up on the first visit had been addressed.

“This is unacceptable and I want to publicly assure every one of our patients and their families that the issues raised are now being fully addressed and will be rigorously implemented and maintained going forward. We will also ensure that this approach is taken seriously and consistently applied right across all of our hospitals and care settings and all of our staff are committed to this.”

There have already been significant changes made including more domestic time allotted to the emergency department and Immediate Assessment Unit, a programme of ongoing staff re-training across the service and improved communication between domestic staff and clinical colleagues.

Dr Jennifer Armstrong, NHSGGC Medical Director added: “I would like to reiterate our nurse director’s comments that it is our duty to ensure a safe and clean environment for our patients.

“Our staff take these inspection reports very seriously and have been working extremely hard to address the requirements made by the inspection team.

“We have also invited Health Protection Scotland to provide advice and assurance to ensure we have covered all the bases.”